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Religion

Jainism

The Indian religion of the Jinas, the “conquerors”, centred on non-harming and the soul’s liberation from karma.

Also called Jain Dharma

Introduction

Jainism is the religion of those who follow the Jinas, “conquerors”, teachers who have conquered the passions and attained omniscience. The Jinas are also called tīrthaṅkaras, “ford-makers”, because they have made a crossing over the river of rebirth for others to follow. In the present age there have been twenty-four, of whom the last was Mahāvīra, an older contemporary of the Buddha.

Jainism teaches that the universe is eternal and uncreated, and full of souls (jīva), each by nature possessed of infinite knowledge, perception, bliss and energy, but bound by karma, a subtle matter that clings to the soul through passion and harmful action. Liberation is the freeing of the soul from all karma, after which it rises to the summit of the universe and abides there forever in its own nature. There is no creator God; the liberated souls are worshipped as models, not as dispensers of grace.

The path to liberation is the “three jewels” of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. Its ethics are centred on ahiṃsā, non-harming of every living being, and on non-possession, truthfulness and restraint. Its philosophy of many-sidedness (anekāntavāda) holds that reality is complex and every view partial.

History

Historical

Jainism took its classical form in the Ganges plain in the fifth or sixth century BCE, in the same world of wandering ascetics that produced Buddhism. Mahāvīra organized a community of monks, nuns and lay followers; his predecessor Pārśva, the twenty-third tīrthaṅkara, may also have been historical.

The community divided into two main traditions: the Digambaras, “sky-clad”, whose monks renounce all clothing and who hold that women cannot attain liberation in a female body, and the Śvetāmbaras, “white-clad”. Tradition traces the split to a famine and migration in the third century BCE; it was formalized over the following centuries. The Śvetāmbara canon was written down at a council at Valabhī in the fifth century CE. Jain thinkers such as Kundakunda, Umāsvāti and the twelfth-century polymath Hemacandra made major contributions to Indian philosophy, logic and literature.

Jain merchants and patrons built great temples, at Mount Abu, Śatruñjaya and Śravaṇabeḷagoḷa among others. In the modern period the Jain ideal of non-violence influenced Mohandas Gandhi. Today there are some four to five million Jains, most in western India, with communities around the world.

  1. 6th–5th c. BCEMahāvīra, the twenty-fourth tīrthaṅkara
  2. 3rd c. BCE onwardThe division into Digambaras and Śvetāmbaras
  3. 5th c. CEThe Śvetāmbara canon is written down at Valabhī
  4. 12th c.Hemacandra, scholar and adviser to the king of Gujarat
  5. 20th c.Jain non-violence influences Gandhi

Major thinkers

Key concepts

Important texts

Convergence and divergence

Resemblance and difference, given equal room. Each note is marked with the kind of statement it makes.

Areas of convergence

  • Ahiṃsā, with Buddhism

    Historical

    Jainism and Buddhism arose in the same ascetic milieu, share the doctrines of karma and rebirth, and both make non-harming central to their ethics.

Areas of divergence

Cite this entry
Chicago (bibliography)

“Jainism.” Tradition. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/jainism.

Chicago (note)

“Jainism,” tradition, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/jainism.

MLA

“Jainism.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/jainism.

BibTeX
@misc{traditions-jainism,
  title = {{Jainism}},
  howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society},
  note = {Tradition. Last modified November 7, 2026},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/jainism}
}

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